The 2009 conference is hosted by The Science Shop, Queen's University Belfast

Food Matters:  A Focus on Food Systems and Security as a Holistic and Integrated Approach to Sustainable Development, Climate Change and as a potential vital force for the Science Shop Movement

The worldwide movement to protect and re-create sustainable local food systems brings into play a complexity of inter-related issues and can simultaneously address and impact global sustainability, community development and climate change.  Linda Geggie from Canada will share her own work and perspectives in community and global development focused on food security and creating healthy locally-based food systems.  She will demonstrate how this work builds and re-creates community; creates a holistic, integrated way to address sustainability and make a significant contribution to climate change solutions.

Linda will share stories from all of her work and will explore how this work can be better connected to the work of Science Shops and the Living Knowledge Network.  What is more fundamental than food?

Maeve Lydon who works with Linda on a community-university research partnership will help facilitate the workshop and share her perspectives as an ex-staff/board member of global NGOs such as OXFAM and Development and Peace.

Theme: Science shops, sustainable development and climate change

Presenters Names: Linda Geggie and Maeve Lydon

Presenters Institutions:

Linda Geggie -  LifeCycles Project Society, Victoria, B.C. Canada

Maeve Lydon - University of Victoria, Canada

Presenters Biographies:

Linda Geggie is the founder of and a staff member with LifeCycles, a Canadian organization, that works on food and sustainability issues.  She has worked nationally and globally (particularly with Latin America) for 15 years in food security, sustainability and climate change through development of grassroots programs, the production of learning and research tools and the development of multi-sectoral policy change with schools, youth, communities, NGOs , businesses, food producers and governments. 

Linda is a founding Steering Committee member of the Office of Community-Based Research in Victoria and works with them as their lead Food Security Community Research Coordinator.  She is also a Board member of the BC Food Systems Network and a part time farmer producing eggs, shiitake mushrooms and honey.

Maeve Lydon is the Associate Director of the Office of Community Based Research at the University of Victoria and has worked for 30 years with local and global community development and sustainability organizations and movements.

She has a particular interest in transformational pedagogy and levelling the power differences between places and people with a more recent focus on community-university research partnerships for social and environmental change.